Modern Man
by NoxEtLucem
Summary: UPDATED! How hard could it be to function in Kagome's time? Inuyasha had this bet in the bag. Too bad he never anticipated dealing with things like thongs, steering wheels, and school girls out to make him crazy. Told in drabbles. InuKag.
1. Scent

A/n: This series actually sprung to life from the title, which came to me at a random one day. This will be a series of drabbles, which I think will be easier for me to handle. I already have a few ideas in mind but if anyone has any suggestions, I'm all ears!

Disclaimer: I do not own any characters from Inuyasha. All of them belong to the amazing Rumiko Takahashi.

**Modern Man**  
Scent

"Gods, Kagome, what _is_ this place?"

The young woman turned around and looked at him with a look in her eye that was almost a plea. "It's Veronica's Tryst…"

"What the hell kind of name is that?" the hanyou asked her, covering his nose with his hand. Kagome sighed and stopped her trek, almost right outside the store. She stood close to him so he wouldn't have to shout so much. He was already gathering attention as it was, a few people breaking their necks to get a glimpse of the silver haired man who was shouting.

"It's just the name of the store, I have no clue why," she said, silently agreeing that it was a rather silly name. "You can just stay out here if it's so bad."

"Keh. We made that bet and I'm sticking to it," Inuyasha stubbornly said, his eyebrows setting into a glare directed at the miko. Kagome sighed, recalling the memory of Inuyasha arrogantly declaring that her world was nothing to be afraid of. In the heat of the argument, Kagome blindly challenged him to stick around for her errands whenever she went back to her time. Of course, presented with a challenge, Inuyasha took it.

And that's how things ended up where they were – the two of them outside of Veronica's Tryst, her out of the normal school girl outfit, and him in a pair of modern clothing. Sneakers, fitted jeans, an old t-shirt from Tokyo U, a grey zip up jacket, and a baseball cap to top everything off. Kagome had to admit, it was a very interesting – and equally appealing – twist to the Inuyasha she saw on the other side of the well.

"Okay, if you complain, you lose," Kagome said in a sing-song voice, pointing a finger at him. Inuyasha grit his teeth, gold eyes flashing. He accepted the challenge. "I'll be going in to get a present for Eri's birthday. I'll try to be quick and _you_ try not to wander off…"

In the middle of the store, Kagome put a finger to her lip, lost in thought concerning which smell her good friend would like. Her eyes scanned the shelves of orange, pink, purple, red…and she was about to see how Firefly Dust would smell like, when she turned to see her companion had gone missing. A small surge of panic awoke within her as she weaved her way around the displays of perfume and lotions, her head turning left and right for a hint of where he went.

_There!_

He was in the less fragrant area of the store – not surprising. She found her way to his mane of silver, her mouth ready to reprimand. When she saw what he was so intent on looking at, her mouth fell a little open.

Inuyasha was staring at a sale bin, filled with a pile of colored unmentionables. He slowly picked up a pair that happened to be more like plain string than the others, and let it hang off his claws. When he pulled apart a bit it looked like a poorly constructed spider's web, made with bright red webbing. His concentrated gaze turned into a frown.

Kagome noticed the women around were starting to look at him warily and, blushing, she walked forward to claim him. "Inuyasha, what did I tell you about wandering?"

"Kagome…" he said, ignoring her. How serious his voice was made Kagome forget about scolding him. "What kind of store sells nets these small?"

She stopped in her tracks and let out a laugh. At their bet, his question, and at his attraction to lacy underwear – though unconscious.

"It's actually, um, an undergarment," she slowly said, blushing lightly. She watched his face as the new information hit his ears. He turned a grimace down to the thing in his hands, and threw it back in the bin, seemingly scathed by it.

"Who in the hell would want to wear that?" Inuyasha asked, backing away from the bins. Kagome gave a nervous laugh in response to some people around them, though some guys with their girls seemed to agree with him.

"I don't know! Some women do!" she said, taking hold of his arm and starting to drag him away. "Now let's go back to-."

Her sentence was cut off by one of Inuyasha's own, still refusing to let go of the matter that had been in his hand. "You can't wear that shit, it's too small to cover anything!"

Astonished by his desire to keep this conversation going, and hoping what she would do next would keep him quiet, she pointed at something as they passed. "_That_ is how women wear it."

Inuyasha's eyes boggled at the manikin clad in only a piece of lace that could pass as dental floss. On the back there were three strings on each side, how the hell it would work, he didn't know. But he finally noticed where it would fall on a woman's hips, and where one string in the back would fall between… He gulped, flushed, and suddenly had a hard time looking at Kagome.

Satisfied with his silence, though still blushing as well, she dragged him back to the fragrance area. There, Kagome went on spraying a little of each on her wrists, arms, and neck, politely asking him to smell each one. Each time his nose got close to her skin, he picked up the hitch in her breath. He kept silent but told her which had a better chance of attracting favorable mates, to which Kagome sweat dropped.

Fifteen minutes later, they were out of the store – Inuyasha taking gigantic breathes of fresh air and grumbling about it being "Miroku's heaven" while Kagome walked beside him, rolling her eyes but laughing.

"Thanks for helping me weed out the gross smells," she told him, looking up at him with her big brown eyes. Inuyasha looked at her out of the corner of eye, and scoffed. A curious thought got to her. "What was your favorite scent?"

"_My_ favorite scent?"

Inuyasha thought back to his earlier testing, keeping his eyes on their path. It took him hardly a few seconds to answer, and when he finally said it, his voice was sure.

"Yours."

* * *

A/n: So there it is, the first chapter of Modern Man! I hope you all enjoyed! Can anyone guess what Veronica's Tryst is related to? Keke. The next chapter will talk about what exactly is at stake with the bet they made. Thank you so much for reading and pleaaase review!


	2. Safe

Disclaimer: I own none of the characters mentioned in the content below, all of which belong to the amazing Rumiko Takahashi.

**Modern Man**  
Safe

It was cool in the building, and quiet, save the low chatter of the tellers and their patrons. Kagome looked around at the people in line, the brown tiles making up the floor, and at the island in the middle stocked with pens and envelopes. Inuyasha stood beside her, silent for once, but the look on his face made it apparent he was on guard.

"Tell me again why we're here," he said, more of a statement than a question. Kagome watched his eyebrows twitch, a small smile playing on her lips. She knew if his baseball cap was off his ears would be twitching at the hushed sounds, too.

"We're here at the bank so I can deposit money for, um, safe-keeping," she said, putting a finger in the air. Inuyasha stayed still a moment, soaking the information in. He nodded, accepting the explanation.

"Sounds simple enough."

Golden eyes observed as people from the line would step up to a person on the other side of the wooden barrier, talk for a moment, sometimes hand something over, give a smile, and leave. That's it. They were done. Then the next person would come up and it would start all over again.

"Keh. This is simple. Pretty soon you'll be mine for a month," Inuyasha said with a smirk. Kagome's breath stopped at his choice of words – until she remembered what was at stake with their bet.

"You're not going to keep me in the feudal era for a month," she whispered somewhat strongly. But then she felt self-conscious when an elderly woman turned around to look at her.

"Yeah, well, if you think you can go home whenever you want _for a month_, your head ain't on straight," her dog-eared companion said, not bothering to keep his voice down. When more heads turned she quickly yanked his arm by the bicep and dragged him down the line since she couldn't actually use the powers of subjugation in the middle of a bank. Inuyasha yelped a little at the sudden action, but stubbornly complied.

There were several whispers of which was the possessive one or abusive one in the relationship and Kagome's blush deepened while her annoyance grew a tad. _Great, we look like we're in a dysfunctional relationship._ After a few seconds, another thought came to her mind. _We actually look like we're in a relationship?_

Inuyasha rubbed his bare arm, uncovered by the short sleeve of his shirt, and saw Kagome's expression go from irritated to something completely different. He couldn't exactly put his clawed finger on what it was, but he knew it was similar to the look she had on her face after he told her what his favorite scent was those few weeks before.

"Can you only keep money in this bank?" he asked, genuine curiosity taking over him. Kagome was snapped out of her reverie and looked up at him, surprised at his interest.

"Actually, you _can_ keep other important things in here. You can deposit things you want to keep safe. They have vaults with all these security, a bunch of locks, cameras… It's called a 'safe' for a reason, because it does just that. Keeps things safe!"

"Hn. Safe, huh?" was Inuyasha's intelligent reply. He noticed there was only one more person ahead of them and suddenly drew near to her. Kagome's eyes widened at the space diminished and the more she leaned away, the closer he got.

"Wh-what are you-?"

And it was over before her question could be formed. The elderly woman in front of her had already been called up and it was her turn to make a deposit. Inuyasha nudged her forward and in her confusion Kagome went into auto pilot, finding her way to the teller diagonally to her left. The transaction was going smoothly but her mind was muddled with questions.

She finally managed a smile, and pulled away from the counter, looking to find Inuyasha. The scene she found could have made her laugh.

If it wasn't for the fact Inuyasha had the container of their jewel shards in his clawed hand.

And the other fact he was shoving his hand towards a very confused teller.

As she quickly walked over, she heard him command, "Keep these safe."

"Oh, ha ha, you're hilarious!" Kagome improvised, grabbing the container from Inuyasha's hand. "He's such a kidder, don't mind him!"

Before anyone else could make a comment – or protest, in Inuyasha's case – she grabbed him and ran away like a bat out of Hell.

"Inuyasha, what were you thinking?" Kagome asked, hand on her forehead, trying to hide her embarrassment. Whether or not she was embarrassed by his attempt at depositing, or being mildly seduced by his proximity when he took the jewels from her, she wasn't sure. And that made her even more embarrassed. Inuyasha snatched his arm away from her, frustrated.

"Stop freaking out!" he said loudly. "I just thought that if we put it there, you wouldn't have to worry about keeping 'em safe all the time!"

Kagome slowly turned her eyes to look at him through her fingers. She didn't really know what to say in response. She knew, realistically, he could mean it as an insult to her abilities to protect the shards…but she was actually hoping he meant it in another way. She decided to keep quiet instead of asking him which he meant.

"I was thinking maybe you should be in there, too," Inuyasha muttered, his golden eyes shifting to the side. The expression on his face was one of a child admitting something he didn't want to. At this, Kagome placed a hand on his arm and gave him a reassuring smile.

"People can't be kept in a safe," she said, laughing lightly, and flattered by his intentions. "But don't worry about me. I'm safest when I'm with you."

Inuyasha smirked at the stroke of his ego and Kagome let him have his moment of arrogance. She started walking down the street, knowing where ever she went, he would be beside her. She turned her chocolate eyes up to the blue skies and eventually they went over her shoulder.

There he was, walking in step with her, less than an arm's length away.

There was no doubt. She didn't need a safe to make her feel that way.

* * *

A/n: Yay! The second chapter! Hope you all liked! Thanks so much for the reviews! I'm glad it actually came off as funny, I was worried I was rusty with humor. For those of you who guessed about Veronica's Tryst...you were wrong. I kid, I kid. You were all correct! (:

Once again, any suggestions, don't be afraid to let me know. I hope what's at stake with the bet is clear...I didn't want to flat out explain it so I settled with doing it this way. But let me know if you have any questions.

Thanks a bunch for reading and please review!


	3. Rain

**Author's Note:** Yes, you're reading correctly, it is an update! I apologize, my life gets the better of me most of the time. But thank you all for the reviews and encouragement so far! But how about I just get to the interesting part?

**Disclaimer:** I own nothing in the Inuyasha world (except for a plushie). All characters belong to Rumiko Takahashi, though this specific plot is mine.

* * *

**Modern Man**  
Rain

It was rainy that day, the clouds thick and grey, looming dangerously above the people of Tokyo. It was a strange sight to see for the pair, especially since in the feudal era, the sky was blue as cornflower. But Inuyasha, being gifted with keen senses, knew the coming weather before the people in the box at Kagome's house predicted anything.

He glanced at the girl walking next to him. She made him hold the umbrella, and with the contraption being only of medium size, it forced him to be close to her at all times, their arms flush against one another's. Kagome had on a coat made from a strange material that repelled the water, and boots on of the same make. She forced him to wear an ugly yellow one too, but instead of boots he got a hat that was just as garish as the coat.

He shifted somewhat uncomfortably as Kagome continued to chat animatedly about some famous program for teenagers. His mind wandered, since it was already lost trying to keep up with her words. In his time, it was either you got soaked or you didn't. He wasn't sure who got the points on this round of their bet. Yes, it made things easier and drier…but he felt bound and stiff – which was a far cry of what Inuyasha was used to by nature.

Before, the stillness and quiet before a storm would jar him, make him feel uneasy. But when she started coming around, well, he found himself welcoming the silence. It was all the better to hear her heartbeat with. Be it because he could tell she was lying, scared, happy, or excited, it was the gentle hum in Kagome's chest that brought him solace on days he would have normally been alone (though outwardly he would admit he was only feeling triumphant in knowing her mood).

And that is why, when she splashed him with a kick full of water, he merely glared and shouted at her – never truly mad because he is thankful.

* * *

**Author's Note:** Prior to this I was favoring Kagome's POV so I thought it might be a bit interesting to see it from the other end. R&R please, and flames will be used to poke fun at...someone. Thanks for reading!


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